After two straight days of investment banks reporting big profits there's this very different news:

Bank of America Corp. lost $2.24 billion in the third quarter, it just announced.

According to the Associated Press:

The nation's second-largest bank, which lost $2.24 billion after accounting for preferred dividends, said its losses for failed loans came to almost $10 billion during the July-September period, up almost $1 billion from the second quarter. The bank also added $11.7 billion to its reserves to cover bad loans.

The company, hurt like other banks by consumers' inability to pay their bills, said credit problems would continue for the near future.

The bank's statement about its results is here.